Cartoon by Behrendt on the arrival of refugees in the West (12 August 1989)

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‘West. Polish, Vietnamese, Bulgarian Turks, Volga Germans, Romanian Hungarians, Chinese, refugees from the GDR, refugees from the whole world.’ On 12 August 1989, following the gradual collapse of the communist regimes in the former Eastern bloc, Fritz Behrendt, a Dutch cartoonist originally from Berlin, illustrates the question of the arrival and integration of refugees from Central and Eastern Europe in the West. In light of the growing migrant crisis, the West appears to be increasingly like an impenetrable ship. In September 1989, nearly 6 000 East German refugees gather in front of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague in the hope of joining the FRG via the Hungary–Austria border.

Source and copyright

Source: BEHRENDT, Fritz. "Westen. Polen, Vietnamesen,Türken aus Bulgarien, Wolga-Deutsche, Ungarn aus Rumänien, Chinesen, Flüchtlinge aus der DDR, Asylanten aus aller Welt" dans Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 12.08.1989, n°185, p.3.

Copyright: (c) Fritz Behrendt

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Cartoon by Behrendt on the arrival of refugees in the West (12 August 1989)